Meta:Castle Errówer

Castle Errówer defends a strategic position for Etrand. Now, people might think, why would someone build a castle there? After all, isn't a castle supposed to be defending something, hiding something, and physically preventing the enemy from reaching something important?

Not necessarily. You see, in warfare, soldiers require supplies. First and foremost, they require food and water to even survive. Then they require replacement weapons if they get broken, projectile-based weapons require ammunition, guns require gunpowder in addition to bullets, etc. Unless one intends to forage and loot, all of these need to be transported. This means that the places where the supply caravan goes through must be under control, to prevent the enemy from intercepting the supply caravan and taking them for themselves.

How do castles defend a kingdom during war? Well, most obviously, they can physically block passage in chokepoints, but this will only work if a kingdom is literally surrounded by impassable mountains with only only a few walls acting like chokepoints. There is, however, another way castles can defend a kingdom, even on flat plains: they can act as bases of operation for raiding parties willing to intercept enemy supply lines. If the enemy just chooses to ignore a castle and keep marching forward, then chances are, every now and then, horsemen are going to come out of the castle to intercept the supplies and loot them - unless they are constantly accompanied by an army bigger than the castle's garrison. This is why it's generally a much better idea to actually besiege and take the castle, even if it can take even years.

But how does the coastal fortress Errówer come in?

Well, the same concept can be applied to Errówer. It's a big coastal fortress complex with docks and drydocks and whatnot, so ships are constantly stationed within the castle itself. This means, that when an enemy tries to transport supplies or troops with ships, warships can come out of the castle to intercept it, unless they are accompanied by an even bigger fleet of warships.

The position of Errówer makes it very difficult to take without a direct assault. The beaches that surround the castle on the west and east are so small that even troops landing on the furthest part away from the castle will be still in range of the siege engines mounted on the castle walls and towers. And trying to flank and assault from the north? Those super-tall mountains disagree with that. Therefore, the only real option is an amphibious assault, and medieval people had a phobia against amphibious assaults. Either that, or blockading the castle to prevent food from coming in, and bombarding the castle via siege engines mounted on ships.

But either way, the castle can buy a lot of time for Etrand, in case of yet another war with Gabyr.